DD214
by WildWheasel
Summary: The DD214 is a document that formalizes one's release form the United States Armed Forces. For most, it's a blissful release into the civilian world. For some, it's a sendoff to the chaos and disorder of the civilian lifestyle. But for one, it would be a goodbye to the world that he knew, forever.
1. Chapter 1 - Urban Attrition

Ask around. Get the intel. Wait around a for a bit sometimes. Hit the target. Rinse and repeat. That was more or less the standard procedure for every time that Charlie company of the 75th Ranger Regiment went outside the wire. This time was slightly different since the target was provided by the boys up in intelligence instead of from going around on presence patrols but, it was more or less still the same thing.

Second platoon – callsign Warrior - was going after the target known as 'The Tinkerer' who has been plaguing the region with IEDs and has already hospitalized over 30 marines and killed eight soldiers. This will be the day that they bring the hammer down and put The Tinkerer out of commission and make him face the justice of a military tribunal or a plethora of copper jacket bullets.

Specialist Dominic Gordon would be leading the convoy out of the FOB in and was responsible for Warrior-One which would be the first onto the breach once they got to the target's house. Warrior-One was equipped with a M134 minigun that would blaze through any resistance and most of the Humvee's interior was taken up by 7.62 ammunition containers so the only occupants would be the driver, navigator/commander, and gunner. This proved to create quite a dilemma for the gunner Randy, who was currently trying to decide which was more fun to shoot – the MK19 which was an automatic grenade launcher, or the minigun, which could spew out death at 50 rounds per _second_.

The train of thought was quickly extinguished when Dominic announced that they just left the green zone. The ride was quiet as everyone was preparing for the battle that was sure to come. The convoy passed herds of donkeys, bombed out shacks, and buildings that were in varied states of disrepair. No matter where they went, there was a eerie mist that hung over the convoy as the dust was kicked up and the streetlights added a orange-yellow tint where ever one could be found. The mist however, was mostly disregarded since the green, grainy hue of the night vision nullified any coloration. The green screen however was often flickering and Dominic fixed that by applying a firm smack to the side of the AN/PVS-15.

Warrior continued through the urban sprawl until they got within a click of the target. Once there was less then a kilometer between them and the target, the convoy was pushed to max speed to reduce the time to target and reaction times. The Humvee's engine strained as it was pushing to get over 80KPH as it barreled down the streets, slowing only for turns.

Second platoon was at the target building within two minutes and struck with the ferocity of a Kansas tornado. Everyone dismounted save for the gunners of Warrior-One and Four and formed up at their assigned buildings.

Dominic ripped the door open as the Humvee slowed to a stop and made an attempt to get out when his rifle got tangled in a myriad of radio wires that came loose from it's jury-rigged holder thanks to several high speed turns. As he got the rifle untangled he looked up and saw a fireteam running at a dead sprint away from their building, a cry came over the radio in the Humvee's center console.

"EVERYONE GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE COMPOUND! That shack is rigged to blow with a timer that has less then 30 to det!" Dominic recognized that as his lieutenant who was currently making a bee-line for Warrior-One as the rest of the section ran for Warrior-Two.

A hailstorm of automatic gunfire came to life as a freshly awaken bodyguard opened fire on the Rangers that were in the process if leaving the compound. The minigun came to life and pumped in a stream of tracers at the window the offending jihadi was shooting from. The lead spewing buzz saw fired in short bursts in an attempt to suppress the enemy. It went completely cyclic as more and more guards and fighters came out and opened fire on Second platoon.

As that was happening, Dominic ripped the handset from the center console and began transmitting back to the FOB. "Kiowa this is Warrior. Tinkerer has his compound set to blow. We are getting the hell out of here. Prepare for mass casualties." the specialist didn't even bother listening to the response as his mental clock kept counting down.

 _14..._

 _13..._

 _12..._

Warrior-Three, Six, and Four reached max capacity and began to haul ass out of there.

 _11..._

 _10..._

 _9..._

Lieutenant Sykes turned around and began to drag the Ranger behind him who took a round to the hip towards Warrior-One.

 _8..._

 _7..._

 _6..._

 _5... shit... we're so screwed._

Dominic began to pray as Sykes began to open the door, only to take several rounds along his back, painting the door of the Humvee red.

It turned out that Sykes' count was off as the building turned into a miniature sun prematurely according to Dominic's mental clock.

* * *

Klaxons. That was what Dominic heard as his body began the waking up process. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with a light so bright it felt like someone took him and forced his face onto the surface of the sun. After a brief period of disorientation, he quickly realized that his night vision was the perpetrator of his painful blindness so he pushed the goggles off his eyes and had perched them on his helmet.

Giving a brief moment to allow his eyes to adjust to the new lighting, he stared straight ahead and rapidly blinked his eyes. That was when a sounder of black and white armored boars charged across his field of view.

 _I have to be hallucinating, right? There is no way that I could have survived that explosion._ Yet despite what Dominic thought, there was no denying the tremors in the ground caused by the black and white creatures.

It was then that he remembered that Randy was, should, be behind him in the gunner's platform. He turned around and saw Randy squinting his eyes trying to adjust to the light since he too had his night vision on when he woke up.

"Randy, you good man?" Dominic called out

"Yeah, never been better." Was the reply from the gunner.

"What the hell is going on?" Dominic asked but he knew it would be a fruitless endeavor since Randy was behind him the entire time.

The reply came after a moment of contemplation. "Let's see here... It seems that we're not dead and there is a pack of boars running around the street with reckless abandon."

"A group of boars is called a sounder you-"

A group of fleeing civilians caught Dominic's attention as they were running from the boars and were failing seeing as how the boars were gaining on them. One of the group slowed down and drew a pistol from his hip and got into a Weaver Stance and opened fire.

Dominic saw enough and spoke, "Randy, those boars are hostile. Tear 'em up but watch your fire." He got a grunt and a whirring minigun motor in response.

A flurry of 7.62 round began flying towards the sounder and started to rip them into pieces, literally. This however got the person with the pistol to stop shooting and look at the Humvee in awe. Unfortunately, this temporary break in fire allowed for the beast to get close enough so that Randy couldn't open fire. It charged forward and gutted the gunslinger, making two very deep puncture wounds. It shook its head side to side in order to get the man off and succeeded at the cost of the man getting much more severe wounds that would most likely be fatal. Once the tusks were free from the body, the black swine moved far away enough so that the minigun could take care of it.

Dominic hit the accelerator and drove up to the injured man and got out and grabbed the trauma kit in the back seat. He set to work in getting the man stabilized and in order to keep him awake, asked for his name.

"Name's Ruben. Who are you people?" he asked.

"I'm Specialist Dominic Gordon. The guy on the gun is Private Randy Caruso. Is there anywhere that we can take you where you'll be safe?" the rifleman was disinfecting the puncture sites and when he noticed that the bleeding slowed down considerably, something that shouldn't happen for wounds that size. While he was curious, he didn't mention it figuring that he'll find out later.

"The best place I can think of is at the shuttle ports. It's just to the east of here." Ruben's words were punctuated by bursts from the minigun as Randy opened fire on what looked like a pack of giant armored bears in the same color pattern as the boars.

The sound of roaring engines could be heard as dozens of attack transports made its way towards the Rangers' position. Most of them dropped off airborne units, without parachutes, on a position to the south while others peeled off and actually landed more towards the outskirts.

' _Those much be some crazy sonza bitches if they're jumping without chutes from that high up.'_

Oh how little did he know that the Knights had been made with that purpose in mind.

A pair of dropships made it's way towards the Humvee's direction and landed in a empty square about 100 meters north of their position. Two squads of men clad in white armor with red decals accompanied by a few robots poured out and ran towards where the remains of Warrior-One were located.

A pair of medics put Ruben on a stretcher and went towards the dropships without a word while a person who Dominic assumed was a squad leader stepped forward with his rifle halfway raised up.

"Who the hell are you guys?" asked the white armored man who gave both of them a once over. Before Dominic could respond he cut him off, "You know what, I don't care. You've been helpin' people so might as well continue. Come with us."  
Dominic gave a quick knowing glance to Randy who simply gave a curt nod while scanning the streets. The riflemen got in the driver seat again and got behind and between the staggered column of the white armored soldiers and got a few sideways looks from the soldiers on the right side of the column. It was because of the fact that the right side was painted in Sykes' and the other Ranger's blood and riddled with bullet holes. They continued down a street in relative peace that was soon broken by a swarm of the black monstrosities rounding the corner.

"GRIMM!" shouted a soldier somewhere to Dominic's left

' _So that's what they're called.'_

 _ **Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrtt**_ was the only sound that responded to the cry.

' _Thank Christ for earpro.'_

As cooling brass casings cascaded onto the hood and Dominic, the rest of the soldiers opened fire on the pack. Half of the had an incredulous look on their faces while the other half bore full on grins. As soon as the last of the pack fell, it was obvious who killed what. The ones that were killed by the soldiers and robots had tiny dots along their bodies and heads. The ones that were killed by the minigun were eviscerated, some of the bear like grimm had holes that were the size of dinner plates in them. Needless to say, it was absolute carnage whenever the minigun opened fire.

The group of soldiers moved down the streets with the support of Warrior-One, tearing through any resistance. The vanguard of robots which Dominic learned were called Knights rounded a corner and were ambushed by a large group of boarbatusks, something else that Dominic learned from listening to the callouts from the soldiers.

This time however, the minigun was silent and as he turned around to check the ammo feed, he saw Randy frantically trying to fix the electrical system that powered the gun. Of course, something breaks when you need it the most. The specialist grabbed his rifle and got out of the Humvee, hoping to make up for some of the lost firepower. His first kill was on a boarbatusk which tripped from having its leg shot out from underneath it. As he sighted in on his second target, the minigun came back to life and shredded it.

Dominic let out a smile and a curse of "Bastard stole meh' kill" before getting back in the driver seat.

Things were looking up. There hasn't been any casualties and all grimm encountered were killed. However Murphy's Law of Combat is notorious for striking at the most inconvenient of times, and strike it did.

A Knight was taking care of a boarbatusk when a second one charged and ran a tusk into its midsection. It started to shoot wildly on fully automatic as any control lines were severed and it was stuck on fire. As it was falling down, a bullet went under the brim of Randy's helmet and went through his brain, lodging itself in his helmet. Randy fell down dead, not even getting a chance to cry out in pain.

The minigun ceasing fire clued Dominic that something was wrong and as he turned around to check the ammo levels the sight of blood dripping from the weapons mount sprang him into action. He quickly pulled Randy out of the mount and moved to grab his personal first aid kit when he noticed the nature of the wound. The upper half of his forehead was blown clean off and brain matter could clearly be seen. At this sight, Dominic simply gave a quiet huff of rage mixed with sadness before checking the canister the minigun ammo was stored in.

Slightly under a quarter left. Maybe a fifth or so.

Dominic stepped out and approached the nearest soldier, "You there. You're now my gunner. Randy's dead." With the terse statement concluded, the Ranger turned around and got back in the driver's seat. A shocked Atlesian did as told and got on the gunner's platform of the Humvee.

"Okay. The button on the left spools up the gun while the one on the right shoots it. You need to hold down both of them at the same time if you want to shoot it. Don't fire in bursts longer then two seconds, we don't have much ammo left and this thing chews through it like nobody's business." Dominic spoke rapidly as he rolled down the windows and angled the Humvee to the side so he could shoot out of it.

"I gotcha'." said the soldier.

The process of clearing the streets of grimm was a long and hard one. The short platoon would go for blocks without contact and suddenly encounter a massive horde. Then there were also the random stragglers that would be spread through the streets. It only became harder when the minigun ran out of ammo, giving no fire support to the platoon on the ground. The closest term describing what was happening would be a slugfest but it wasn't so much of a challenge as it was a game of endurance.

Soon the platoon's sector of responsibility was cleared and they made a move for Victory Square, the epicenter of this grimm incursion. When they arrived, Dominic didn't expect what would be there whatsoever. Thus, when he saw a dozen teenagers with massive weapons drawn and lazing about, he thought that he must have been going crazy. One of them had a freaking handheld minigun like Blaine from Predator and nobody even batted an eye!

His presence drew everyone's attention when he drove up in an armed, blood soaked vehicle that was covered in shell casings and looked like it had been through hell and back. Which, to an extent, it had been. The engine cut off as Dominic flipped the ignition switch and the door opened and Dominic gently dismounted, taking in the environment around him as he did so. He took his helmet off and set it on the hood of the Humvee and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and looked at it longingly. He had promised himself that he would quit smoking but after everything that has just happened, there was a full on firefight going on in Dominic's head debating whether or not to light one up.

The young hunter and huntress trainees along with their professors watched in morbid fascination as a medic interrupted Dominic's train of thought and told him that a truck from the morgue was waiting for Randy. He simply nodded and opened the door to let the medical examiners get to Randy's body. When the rear door was opened, an outpour of blood accompanied by the occasional shell casing riding the current fell onto the pavement. The MEs put Randy's body on a stretcher and put a tarp over him before loading him onto the truck for one final farewell. The morbid fascination quickly turned to horror for most of the trainees.

The Ranger ran a hand through his virtually non-existent hair as the Atlesian lieutenant walked up to him and extended a hand. Gordon shook it with a firm vertical jerk and a tired smile.

"I don't know where you came from but thanks for the help. You guys kicked ass and I hope that the Creator will look over him." the lieutenant continued. "Well, we have to debrief and do an AAR with you at a secure location. Just wait for the transport that's going to pick up the Beacon kids." he concluded and gave a crisp salute to the specialist.

"Sir," Dominic started, "I'm just a specialist. Shouldn't I be the one saluting you?" he asked as he returned the salute.

"You did something that went way above what was expected and helped minimize casualties within my ranks. Not only that, you helped us clear out sector in record time, literally. So, if you ever find yourself in a sticky situation, you got yourself a platoon of Atlas' finest waiting for you." the lieutenant concluded with a smile.

"Thank you sir." was all that Dominic said, all that needed to be said before he let his arm fall from his brow.

Then the most curious of acts got committed in the strangest of times. Specialist Gordon started to sweep the shell casings and ammo links off of the hood of the Humvee until there were none left. Then, he took the night vision goggles off of his helmet and placed them in their carrier case before he jumped up and laid down on the hood of the Humvee. He positioned his helmet under his head, finding as comfortable a spot as he could, and dozed off.

Much to the shock and chagrin of the Beacon staff and students, he was out cold within twenty seconds.

Murphy's 23rd Law of Combat. Never stand when you can sit. Never sit when you can lie down. Never stay awake when you can sleep. It's better known within the ranks as, 'Anywhere, Anytime.'

* * *

 **A/N:** I would like to give thanks to doomtrooper83 for reminding me to put this additional notes section in to explain any nomenclature and acronyms used.

 **IED** : Improvised Explosive Device. Bombs that are homemade (using artillery shells and/or stolen plastic explosive) and are the weapon of choice by insurgents across the Middle East.

 **M134 Minigun** : A six barreled gatling gun that fires 7.62 millimeter rounds at 6000 rounds per minute.

 **MK19** : A weapons system that fires 40 millimeter grenades at 375 rounds per minute. Basically a grenade machine gun.

 **FOB** : Forward Operating Base. Self explanatory, a base set up closer to enemy lines and is smaller then full on bases.

 **AN/PVS-15** : Night vision goggles that have two tubes and are most commonly used by special operations forces (But getting phased out soon)

 **Humvee** : The technical name is the **H** igh **M** obility **M** ultipurpose **W** heeled **V** ehicle. It's the backbone of the US armed forces that does everything from transport troops to being a frontline fighting vehicle (But it's not supposed to)

 **Weaver Stance** : A stance that's used to fire pistols. It has the user have both hands on the firearm and is the most common pistol stance

 **Earpro** : **E** ar **P** rotection. Anything from noise canceling headphones to earplugs, if it saves you from going deaf, it's earpro

* * *

 **Edited 1/19/16, 1310 for spelling**

 **Edited 1/19/16, 1840 for additional notes/explanations**


	2. Chapter 2 - Housekeeping

"You have got to be kidding me." Yang punctuated the statement with an open mouth.

"It seems that it would be the case. He had what looked like night vision on his helmet before he took it off. Maybe he's been up for a while?" Ren being sharp as ever, pointed this out.

"I wonder what he's dreaming about." Ruby was met with several shocked eyes, "What? Isn't it normal for everyone to have dreams while they sleep?"

Ren quickly responded, "Point taken, but I don't think he's dreaming. He's shivering and constantly shifting. I would lean more towards having a nightmare. He is after all a soldier. Who knows what he's been through?"

* * *

 _ **Seven Years Ago**_

Within the middle of nowhere woods lies a group of Rangers that are undergoing the fabled army SERE school... in _winter_. Dominic pulled out a canteen of water from the foot of his sleeping bag that he placed last night. In theory, his body heat was supposed to keep the water warm enough to prevent freezing so he could have a lukewarm drink in the morning. That was not the case at all. The water was frozen up to the cap and wouldn't melt until it was placed over a fire or something of the like. Dominic and his group of seven others were to make it to the extraction zone in the freezing cold without water, the closest you could get was getting some ice and letting it melt in your mouth. One hell of a way to start day three of the Escape  & Evade portion of SERE school.

* * *

While teams JNPR and CFVY were talking with each other, team RWBY was currently standing over the Humvee and Dominic, making their own predictions about what the equipment was and where it came from. They were all currently inspecting the door on the front right, wondering where all of the blood and bullet holes came from. They could the blood wasn't from the person that got dragged out since the blood on the door was dry and it was smeared downwards, not dripped.

Yang got on eye level with a bullet hole that was just under the window and saw something strange. There was a bright blue box that was sitting on the center console under a plethora of map boards and shell casings. Too enveloped by her curiosity to think otherwise, she opened the door and reached for the box. She apprehended it and made it face her. What she was currently holding was a box of baby wipes that was nearly empty judging from the weight.

"Baby wipes?" she thought aloud, "Why would a soldier need baby wipes?"

Weiss walked up behind her to begin berating her for opening up the vehicle without warning anyone. That however, was brought to a premature close as she spotted the box of baby wipes in Yang's hand as well as everything that was inside the Humvee. There was cords, shell casings, lots of blood and... brain matter? as well as an ungodly amount of sand dusting absolutely everything. Ruby and Blake walked up to them and just stared in a spectrum of emotions that ranged from being intrigued to being in absolute awe.

Any comment that would have been made was cut off by the sound of a flight of a half dozen bullheads coming in to retrieve the hunters and huntresses along with the team leaders from Atlas. A single bullhead's engines were loud, a half dozen of them were deafening, so while everyone was wincing from how loud the transports were, Dominic was still sleeping soundly. A look was shared between team RWBY and when they investigated further, they found out how he could still sleep. He was currently wearing earplugs.

Upon the discovery that Dominic couldn't be awoken by shouting, Coco prepared to wake him up using the precision application of force over a wide area to the face. More colloquially known as a slap. As she reared her hand back, she was interrupted by Ruby who got to Dominic first and shook him awake. With a slight frown of disappointment, the machine gunner spun on her heal and walked back to the bullhead that team CFVY was in.

"Huh? What's... oh, okay. I guess evac's here." Dominic woke up slightly confused but nonetheless warm. Dreams are powerful and can take their toll on the body.

He pulled out his earpro so that he could actually hear and would have regretted it if it wasn't for the fact that he was nearly deaf anyways. Sure a good set of earplugs can save your hearing but when all that's left is the crappy 3M foam plugs because your set of custom Silynx earpro goes missing, you lose your hearing anyways from firing for so long. The fact that there was a minigun spewing lead right next to him in an enclosed space also didn't help in preserving his hearing whatsoever.

The kid in the red hood motioned for him to come on the VTOL that was waiting to take them all back to a secure area for a debrief. With no other to option to consider, Dominic complied and followed Red onto the transport. Out of curiosity, he turned around and looked out the cargo door and watched as another transport started to connect sling cables to the Humvee's hardpoints. With a precautionary up and down, the bulbous aircraft took off with the Humvee hanging under it, swaying to and fro in the wind. As the rest of the transports took off, the cargo door on the Bullhead that he was on closed and the Ranger could feel the aircraft taking off and banking gently to the right.

At last, he sat down on the fold down seats that felt disturbingly similar to that of one that could be found on a Chinook. All eyes in the cabin were directed at him as he sat down and silently grieved for his fallen squadmate and bore a look of supreme sadness as he sat up straight and gave a thousand yard stare at the interior of the cabin wall that was opposite of him.

The ride continued in a solemn silence for a few minutes before Ruby spoke up, "I'm sorry about your friend."

Dominic heard someone addressing him but the gunfire induced tinnitus made it sound like a whisper being drowned out by the dull roar of the engines. "I'm sorry but could you speak up, I can't hear you!" he said with a raised voice that was just bordering a shout.

"I said that I'm sorry about your friend." this time Ruby spoke much louder, letting Dominic hear her words. He gave a restrained, sad smile as an acknowledgment and continued to stare at the cabin wall. This time however, the thousand yard stare was replaced by one of fatigue and tiredness.

Everyone on the Bullhead took the moment of peace to relax after some long days and nights of fighting.

* * *

It was the lurching stomach and feeling of vertigo is what woke Dominic up. On instinct, he looked down at his watch and remained staring at it for a while, trying to figure out what was wrong with it. It hit him at about twenty seconds of staring at the watch face, the date said that it was a Wednesday. The mission to take out The Tinkerer was on a Monday. His mind started rushing as everything was trying to align itself and make sense but it wasn't doing anything quicker then a turtle walking on tar.

A sudden thirst came over Dominic as he finally got all of the adrenaline to ware off, letting the body's basic needs take over. Instantly his hand shot up to the hose on his right shoulder to drink from his CamalBak but nothing came out as he sucked on the hose hard enough to get a golf ball through but had no avail. He dropped the rubber hose and instead reached for his canteen which thankfully, was heavy enough to indicate that it still had water within it. The lukewarm nectar of the gods ran down Dominic's throat as he dumped the contents of the container downwards, revitalizing him instantly.

Then came the question pertaining to the NODs that was sitting in his left cargo pocket. The AN/PVS-15 only has around 12 hours worth of battery life. According to his watch, two days, over 48 hours, has passed yet when he woke up, they were active and in working order. He sure as hell didn't replace the batteries while he was in transit seeing as how he didn't have any batteries on him. The closest ones were in a pile of gear that was piled onto the back seat on the opposite side of the Humvee. He's read enough sci-fi books to know that what probably happened was that the explosion sent him to another dimension. Though, he was having a very hard time believing that seeing as how everything looked a lot like it did on Earth save for the grimm and the fact that someone that was _maybe_ old enough to drink could carry a minigun around and not a single person questioned it. He liked it but if that was to happen in somewhere like in the middle of LA, then the media would raise a shitstorm.

There was a soft thud and all movement came to a halt, signaling that they've landed. The Ranger looked over at the girls who were all either asleep or in a trance like zombie state. It pained him that it would be him that wakes them up from their peaceful state. Whatever, they all probably had to have some hard mornings of not wanting to go to school and their parents giving them the boot to get up. It wouldn't be too different. Aside from the part about the morning and parent, Dominic's mental description was a perfect match of what his actual acts was.

He cleared his throat and spoke in a firm tone, "Alright girls, we're here. Get up, you can sleep later when everything's taken care of."

"Five more minutes..." was the muttered reply from Yang as she got up, the statement fit well for the others as they got up in a similar state.

Dominic didn't know what to expect so when the cargo doors opened to reveal what looked like a much larger version of Disney's Castle, he couldn't help but to marvel at the beautiful architecture. Then he remembered that he was supposed to head to a secure area for debriefing... he instantly started to question how secure this place was since most people looked like they weren't even old enough to drink. That, and the fact that they all wore school uniforms. The uniform wasn't military nor was it all like the standardized dress of a business. This was obviously a school.

Two figures approached the quintet of bullheads that were sitting on the landing pads. Well, four of them landed, the fifth carrying the Humvee was hovering, letting the ground crew undo the sling. Technicalities aside, the hunters and huntresses (in-training) disembarked, relaxing at the familiar sight of the Beacon campus, planning on doing things ranging from going to sleep to partying 'til curfew hits or sleeping until next week for some. The staff however, went ahead and met with the two figures who were holding their distance at twenty meters distant, observing everything.

Dominic just followed the squad leaders from Atlas seeing as how they were the ones that were most likely to attend an AAR session. When he approached the two men, he took the initiative and introduced himself first. "Hello there, I'm Specialist Dominic Gordon." and he shook the hands of each of them.

"Hello there. I am Ozpin, welcome to Beacon." The message itself was suggestive enough that the rifleman could deduce what the message meant but was too vague to actually get an accurate idea. Dominic then turned to the man to his left.

"And I'm General Ironwood of all Atlas forces, both in Vale and abroad."

Right then and there, Dominic had to bite his tongue in order to not burst out laughing. He maintained a neutral face while his mind reveled in thinking of reasons why someone would take the name of Ironwood. Maybe Woods or something mundane would be the norm but this was obviously not the case. The innuendo must not have been present here given the fact that he didn't seem overly protective of his name. Or the reason why someone would name their kid that.

All further insinuations were cut off as the group of soldiers followed the two seniors (both literally and in terms of experience) towards a tower in the middle of what Dominic dubbed Disney Castle. As they walked along the courtyard, Dominic noticed the amount of attention the group was attracting, more specifically, how much attention HE was attracting. Most gave a cursory glace at the group of soldiers that didn't belong but then did a double take when they saw a smudge of OD and brown in a sea of white.

One might mistake Ozpin's suit to be the source of the green but the amount of brown that was in it quickly shot down that avenue of thought. The hair length was also what threw most of the observant spectators off. All of the armed forces in Remnant allowed hair to be around three-quarters of an inch thick, in which every service member pushes to the limits with haircuts exactly at three and a quarter inches. Never has anyone gone full on buzzcut unless they were victim to a surprise haircut prank. The ergonomics of the standard helmets allow for hair to be that long without impeding its usage or effectiveness. That was not the case with the Ops Core helmet the Rangers used, or with any other helmet that the United States military had.

Dominic just continued to follow the leader, ignoring the gaping holes that were being drilled into him from the stares of the students. They crossed the courtyard and passed the statue of the two hunters standing triumphantly over a fallen beowolf. At this, Dominic was all but sure that he wasn't on Earth anymore. There wasn't any statue that looked like that on Earth and if there was, then the environmental activists would call animal cruelty and raise a shitstorm over the media. Well, it really didn't prove that he wasn't on Earth anymore, that trophy was already taken by Coco and her gold trim minigun.

They arrived at the base of the tower and entered, being greeted by a holographic receptionist. They walked up to what looked like an elevator bank and went for the one that was in the middle of everything, currently being guarded by an unmanned security camera. Ozpin hit the open door button and made his way in being followed by Ironwood and the rest of the soldiers. It was a tight fit, with design standards for people that aren't bulging in equipment and weapons. The soldiers from Atlas were slightly clumsy given how the shoulder pads went up and out in order to maintain mobility. Dominic however, was not so lucky.

The plate carrier was very bulky compared to the armor the Atlesians wore, bulging with additional magazines and grenades. The CamelBak and radios also added to the width of the Ranger with the rifle bringing some bulk as well.

The elevator finally slowed to a halt and the door opened revealing a blonde women with a black and purple cape watching them with mild disinterest. The sight of four soldiers spewing out of an elevator followed by two men calmly strolling out apparently wasn't enough to make the combat instructor amused. How she was even there before the group arrived was knowledge that only the Creator knew. One of life's great mysteries isn't it...

The group got settled in and began the debrief with Ozpin explaining how exactly a massive horde of grimm managed to make its way into the city. When they heard the retelling of Oobleck's story and about how the huntresses-in-training along with a seasoned instructor managed to lead a trail of grimm all the way from Mount Glenn to Vale, there were quite a few eyebrows raised. Through the entire dramatic retelling, Dominic just nodded his head along as he tried to get some useful scraps of information while remaining lost for the most part. The story was about to come to a heroic finish before it was cut off by the start of the actual briefing.

The actual debrief itself only took the better part of an hour. Most of it was dealing with what could be done in order to improve combat effectiveness and to reduce casualties. Anything relating to Dominic's backstory and where he came from was quickly ended seeing as how an explanation of everything would most likely take several hours. They decided that his physical safety and effectiveness was more important, to which the Ranger silently agreed with. The only thing discusses other then right and wrong was about the minigun as well as the cordite propellant. With a weary explanations in layman's terms on the basic principles of how his weapons worked, the meeting came to a close. Not before however, a promise to come into the R&D for a while to explain the weapons more in depth at a later date.

"Now," Ozpin started, "I believe that our third party Mister Gordon is in for a round of congratulations. You and your partner have done an immense amount of work in order to save lives and we thank you for that. Even though we just got here, we still have a lot to discuss. Soldier, you may leave and you have my thanks. I'm sure that you need time to recover and grieve for your friend. I'll have Professor Goodwitch escort you down to your room."

"Thank you sir for extending your hospitality to me." He turned to Ironwood and gave a crisp salute that was promptly returned. He spun on heel and walked into the elevator.

Everyone waited for the door to close so they could continue in privacy. Ironwood asked, "So, what are we to do with him?"

* * *

The ride down was peaceful due to the quiet, not from the Ranger's ringing ears but rather from the actual absence of noise. The entire time that he was here, there was always some form of noise. There was always gunfire, screaming, sirens, engines, and general chaos. He took this time to collect his thoughts and to just try and figure out what exactly was going on. The timeline of events went as followed; Get blown up in Afghanistan, fight through droves of soulless monsters, fall asleep, get debriefed, then finally he end up here.

The first thoughts that came to mind were that of his squad and family. Everyone must be thinking that he's dead. The IED from the tone of Sykes' warning must have been massive. It wouldn't surprise him if all they found were armor fragments from the Humvees and no actual bodies. It isn't totally uncommon to hear about bodies getting vaporized by super-massive explosions. At lest half of second platoon must have still been inside the blast radius when the bomb went off with his squad having to cover the farthest edge of the compound. If he had to bet, then he would probably say that most of his squad hadn't made it out alive. It was getting misty in a zero humidity environment. The emotions were quickly locked away until they could be released in a more personal location.

Once the elevator reached the bottom floor the doors opened to reveal Professor Goodwitch standing with her arms crossed boring a neutral expression. There was no need for words, everyone was too tired to speak anyways, a quick nod towards the door was all that was needed in order to kick things off. The duo crossed the courtyard and came upon a series of large, long, four story buildings. They continued down a street passing myriads of these large apartments and eventually came upon another set of buildings identical to the dorms but were six stories instead of the regular four.

"These are the guest dormitories. Normally they house guest speakers and traveling hunters. However, due to the Vytal Festival starting in two months, most of the dorms are filled with exchange students coming from all across Remnant." The professor explained as they entered the lobby and headed up the stairwell.

The thing that caught Dominic's most immediate attention was the fact that the stairwell was incredibly large, nearly triple the size of a regular one found on Earth. It was because of the fact that there was a ramp with a relatively shallow incline that was wide enough to fit most pieces of furniture. Why most apartments * _cough barracks cough*_ don't do this is an incredible question that will never be answered.

The two climbed up three flights of stairs and headed to a room on the far right side of the hallway. They got in front of the door when Goodwitch pulled out a grey rounded rectangle that had a gold diamond in the middle.

"This is your scroll. It will serve as your room key and do many more things that you can discover on your own. The basic functions that you have to know of are the call and message functions as well as a file reader. In order to use it, just pull the halves apart and tap the wanted function." to emphasize the point, she did just that. "However, in order to unlock your door, all you have to do is put it up against the scanner. Opened or not." She placed the scroll against the black box that sat next to the doorknob and a dull click was heard. "I'll leave you to your own devices. If you need me or anyone else, you will have a pre-loaded list of the Beacon staff on your contacts." She handed the scroll to Dominic and spun on her heel and walked off.

Dominic entered the threshold and inspected the room around him. A bed in the far corner, a bookshelf next to the window seat, a desk, and a cabinet. Two doors led to a restroom and closet on the opposite sides of the room. Above all however, was the presence of a mini-fridge at the foot of the bed. Upon further inspection, it was verified to be fully stocked in snack foods and drinks. He took out a bottle of water and drank half of it in one go, focusing just on the cold liquid running through his body. He set it aside and began to take his armor off.

His helmet came off first. No matter how useful it was in protecting his head, it was still uncomfortable. Then came the plate carrier, instantly making him about 15 kilograms lighter. He proceeded to empty out his pockets of anything within them and placed them all in a place that would make the top of the mini-fridge close to the layout that he used on deployments. His rifle and pistol went on the nightstand right next to the head of the bed, leaving him combat ready within a moments notice. Once that was done, he opened up the closet to find a set of clothes that were close to his size. Remarkably, Remnant has the same system of marking clothing sizes so that made his job much easier.

He went into the shower and proceeded to spend the next half hour enjoying the hot water and scrubbing the dirt and sweat from his body. A quick towel off and clothing change later leaves him lying in bed, waiting for sleep to overtake him.

Yet, it didn't.

Dominic stayed lying down for over two hours wide awake, not being able to go to sleep. It wasn't bad memories or grief that kept him up. It was the restlessness. The sense of something isn't right. 'Anywhere, Anytime' only happens in combat zones, never has it ever happened at home away from deployments. Perhaps it was the fact that he wasn't at risk of having his room breached by a group of terrorists or getting blown up by a suicide bomber or IED. Something was vastly different from where he once was and he wasn't getting enough sleep because of it. Well, so be it. After another hour of tossing and turning, he finally slipped from consciousness and fell asleep.

* * *

 **A/N** : I am so sorry that this took so long in order to put up guys. I am a VERY slow writer that hopes to improve over time. Hell, the entire purpose of this fic is to increase the speed at which I write. I just hope to update this at least once a month. Thanks for all of the support and I hope to deliver more soon.

 **SERE School** :Survive Evade Resist Escape. A special survival and anti interrogation course that is given to all aircrews and most special operations forces members.

 **VTOL:** Vertical Take Off/Landing

 **CamelBak:** A small backpack/harness that is filled with water that is drunk by using a small hose.

 **AAR:** After Action Review. A process where everyone meets and discusses what happened with what went wrong and what went right.

 **OD:** Olive Drab. Lighter and more brownish shade of green.

 **R &D:** Research and Development

 **EDIT 1/20/2016 0738 for spelling and factual/flow correction**


End file.
